The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-05-12
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

| Mrs. Livermore shows that there
are now 2H occupations open r, women
as against seven at the beginning of the
century.-St Louis Republican.
Preliminary tests have shown that
iron cooled while a strong current OF
electricity was passing through it was
increased fully one-hah in tensile
! strength and ductility.
During 1886 eleven new asteroids
were detected, increasing the number
known to 264. OF this total, fifty-seven
have been discovered by DR.. j. Palisa,
of Vienna, and forty-six by DR.. Peters,
of Clinton, n. Y.
Out of Is, 900 earthquakes observed
on coast lines the German seismologist,
Kluge, found that only 124 were accom-
panied by sea waves, although very
large proportion of the shocks had prob
ably originated under the sea.
Professor BOnamico. of the ROYAL
Naval School of Leghorn, has invented
an important instrument for showing
not only the speed. but also indicating
the relative position of one ship to an
other, and so preventing collisions.
"A manufacturer of Roubaix has in
vented a very curious application of
electricity to looms. He adopts an in
dicator which strikes when thread
breaks, and thus saves the weaver from
the close attention to the quickly NOV
ing threads which is so injurious to the
sight.-PopuIar Science News.
An apparatus of iron and glass. in
which a pressure of one thousand at
mospheres can be developed for the
purpose of studying the influence of
great pressure on animal life, has been
exhibited to biologists in France. With
it deep sea animals can be observed un-
der their natural compression.-Spring-
field Times.
The census of 1880 reported the
capital invested in agriculture in Mas
sachusetts was S164,0O0. 900, against
$22, 900, 900 in the manufacture of boots
and shoes. $26, ,OO0,O 900 in the manufac-
ture of wooden goods. and s72. 900
in the manufacture of cotton goods. -
Yankee Blade.
The cut nail industry kept full pace
with other branches of the iron and
steel business during 1886. The total
production reached S,16O,973 kegs OF
100 pounds each against $685. Sl5 kegs
in 1885. 7,5S1.379 kegs in 1884, and
1852, 737 in 1888. The cut nail product.
like that of pig iron and steel, was tho
largest the country ever saw.-BroOk-
lyn Eagle.
The very rapid progress which has
been made within recent years in the
manufacture and treatment of steel,
and in the investigation of the proper
ties of other alloys of iron than those
with carbon, and the influence of i'm
purities on the properties Of steel. have
left all our textbooks so far behind that
a work intelligently recording our pres
ent practice, and collecting and analyz-
ing the scattered information existing
in public and private records, has been
greatly needed. .-BoSton BudJet.
Professor Milne, of Japan, who is
an excellent authority on earthquakes,
which are very frequent in that country,
thinks that the electric disturbances
which SO often accompany the shocks
are the consequences rather than the
causes of the latter. 1t is really the
earthquake which produces the cleo
trical phenomena. In Japan earth
quakes are attributed by the ignorant
either to the action of an eight-legged
earthquake insect living under ground,
or to the movements of great fish.
which ordinarily has a rock on his head
to keep him quiet.-N. Y. Ledger.